DrawType for iOS 8 lets you sketch while messaging

Are you an iPhone owner with a hankering to add little sketches to your texts?

Yes, forget emoji, you can now draw to supplement your messages using a new third-party keyboard app for iOS 8 called DrawType (yes, it’s not the most imaginative name, but it does what it says on the paint tin).

The app offers artists three different line thicknesses, multiple colours, a full alphanumeric keyboard and multiple levels of undo should things go wrong. You can then paste your little sketches into Messages or whichever app you prefer, saying a thousand words with that image (or at least twenty or thirty, anyway).

The developer has optimised the app for the new iPhones, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and the iPhone 5. Of course the phablet will give you the most expansive canvas for your message sketching.

It’s a fun little app, certainly, although how much mileage you’ll get out of it longer-term, we’re not sure. As one doodling user review put it, DrawType is the “quickest way to send bad drawings to friends.”